Officials with the N.C. Department of Transportation say their Wildflower Program is among their most popular endeavors.

“It helps North Carolina be known as a state that cares about its appearance,” said Julia Casadonte, a DOT spokeswoman.

Feedback from travelers, she said, comes in the form of letters, phone calls and emails.

The program was begun in 1985 as a means of improving the looks of the state’s highways. Annually, between 3,500 and 4,500 acres are planted with wildflowers — beds along the interstates and other major roads bursting to life with an array of colors.

The program is funded primarily through the sale of personalized license plates. About $1.3 million goes to the program — with each of the state’s 14 DOT divisions getting about $900,000 for flowers and maintenance. The cost of the program is offset by the fact that areas where the flowers grow don’t have to be mowed like other roadside medians.

Casadonte said the state also receives several thousand dollars annually in donations for the program. She said the money typically comes from individuals wishing to make a donation in someone’s honor.

The beds are planted and tended by the DOT’s Roadside Environmental workers. The flowers aren’t labor-intensive, the DOT says. Once they’re planted, weeded and mulched, it’s pretty much up to Mother Nature to look out for them.

This year — with its abundance of rain — has been a good one for the flowers.

“People are just overjoyed with the sight of the flowers,” Casadonte said. “They represent North Carolina well.”

Ken Taffer is a roadside environmental engineer with the DOT’s Division 7, which includes Alamance, Caswell, Guilford, Orange and Rockingham counties. He said he and his co-workers occasionally hear from individuals who tell them there are better uses of taxpayers’ dollars.

Taffer said he reminds them that tax dollars don’t fund the program.

He said flowers are planted where they’ll get the maximum amount of exposure. Colors have to be vibrant and beds large, Taffer said, for motorists zipping by at 70 mph to notice.

Alamance County doesn’t have as many of the beds as some neighboring counties. Taffer said many of the county’s interstate exchanges are smaller and don’t lend themselves to sites for large, showy flower beds.

A big bed of daylilies near Interstate 40/85’s interchange with Huffman Mill Road is technically not part of the Wildflower Program.

Taffer said there are beds of wildflowers at the interstate’s interchanges with N.C. 119 and Trollingwood Road, but those are being reworked for a second planting and no flowers are currently in bloom.

In Orange County, a half-mile stretch of wildflowers in bloom is located along the westbound lanes of Interstate 40 near the Hillsborough exit. Drive over and have a look.